Forum disturbances

I think this is the correct thing to do, as he’s now undermining Hearingtracker and @AbramBaileyAuD directly.

@z10user2 said:

I am bothered from tenkan saying that that user would go to private messaging rather than openly in the forum. Just more of his “style”.

OTH, supporting DIY has always been a gray area. So, openly sharing information on how to go about it can cause reactions from various folks in authority. For example, there was the automated process to obtain DIY software devised by Blue, which got removed from GitHub and the forum. Even tenkan has helped DIY’ers through PM. So, I’d be careful reading bogeymen into things.

I think I just want to say thank you to everyone who has made this a welcome experience for me. We can all have disagreements, but I think the important thing is to be objective rather than resorting to name calling, bullying, or anything else that would take away from the topic at hand.

Most who have stumbled upon this forum are either people who know a lot about the hearing aid industry, those who want to learn, or those who know a lot about the hearing aid industry and want to learn new things while teaching others what they know.

In the grand scheme of things, let’s keep learning, teaching, and helping one another out.

@jim_lewis said:

Even tenkan has helped DIY’ers through PM

Yes this is correct, although it’s was more to do with the software, I was more talking about how discussions on how to help and go about programming and the particular issues people were having and then finding a solution, this didn’t happen because it was hidden behind PM, I’ve not done this like that, I’ve always been for open dialogue on things regarding this issue, because then other people can read through the thread and maybe find a solution to their very own respective problems they were looking for.

@HomerSimpson said:

The ‘punishments’ appear to have led to a loss of a swathe of DIY information as one of those sidelined may have removed access as a reaction to the Admin’s decision.

Yes, the “school” did seem to be gone a couple days ago. But it’s back now, and being used for just the kind of nonsense that got the author suspended. PVC is trying to get his readers to flag certain posts and thereby cause the mods to waste time. In my case, apparently deleting, and then returning two of my posts. Stay tuned, I’m guessing there’s more to come.

I’m sure the admins here will recognize the fact that the threads being targeted are not being targeted for anything against the house rules. The content belongs to the host. Years of content on this site could be thought of as old information. So what. Threads don’t just get locked just because some people said so. No, the admin needs to judge that. Again, not lockable content.
Once again, that user does not own the content posted here. He owns his content wherever he has it now. Perhaps that’s why he takes his information to pm to at least shield it from all eyes.
With these kinds of shenanigans he is showing yet more of his true colors. Perhaps he needs a longer time in the penalty box. I hope the admins are reading this and take into consideration the intentional targeting of a form of harassment and remove the link in that users pop up box and all posts.

@AbramBaileyAuD

I’ve just looked at the link about account suspended that pvc posted and he’s now talking about myself about the issue with the iCube II, that he never fully understood as he didn’t want to fully understand.

He’s literally using it to still bully people.

I’m out of here!

This site can’t control what another site is doing. You don’t need to be “out of here”. Just ignore the other place. This site seems intent on defending decency and respect amongst its members. Good.
There will always be disagreements or misinterpretations. As long as the parties come to an amicable understanding clearing up the confusion or agreeing to disagree then it’s all good.
Please don’t go anywhere.

@HomerSimpson , @AbramBaileyAuD - The “problem” started when he took his content off site. He’s not holding anything hostage. It’s his content. He was using this site to direct people to his off site content that he could then remain in complete control of.

@z10user2 said:

He’s not holding anything hostage. It’s his content.

He’s reading the forum then using his site to bully people and have a go at people from his site, only because he can’t comment on this forum.

Yes it’s his site but what away to be an online troll!

I find it incredible and amusing (if it did not cause so much pain and grief) that a forum about hearing aids and all that goes with them, could be a place of such acrimony and hostility.

Makes one wonder what a political forum would be like.

@z10user2 said:

He’s not holding anything hostage. It’s his content.

Ironically, his content is somewhat equal to HA manufacturers’ software. Neither is sold, and PVC has said hundreds of times that no one should pay for software copies because they’re freely available. He has also said (but didn’t really mean it) that he was happy people were making use of his old content that he deleted during his last hissy fit, and that he didn’t mind people re-posting it. At least dozens and perhaps hundreds have clicked download on PVC’s new help files at his dropbox account. So that content is readily available to share. I just checked it - “files deleted.” Probably won’t be updated, but most of the info isn’t time sensitive. If he was smart he’d arrange to publish it here as a post. It’s too bad he values control over gratitude.

I suspect that, while many of us have a huge interest in DIY/self-programming, any effort to materially support the practice will need to be expended on a very softly/softly basis. BIG efforts are likely to incur the wrath of many players in the hearing loss industry, and might find they attract unwelcome legal attention, whether warranted or not.

In the unlikely event that the practice became widespread, one could foresee such upheaval as to threaten the very bread and butter of professional audiologists and HA fitters. That said, ‘Right to Repair’ movements are beginning to gain traction in the Apple ecosystem for example. On the other hand, motor vehicle manufacturers appear to be moving to making some vehicle features switchable by subscription.

For now, places such as this will have to tread a fine line between facilitating quiet DIY discussion and activity for/among those who have such an interest, balanced against outright war that might ensue if more overt DIYing became its raison d’etre.

There are two stages to fitting HAs. The initial fitting should involve REM and needs to be done in office with a professional. Later, minor tweaks need to be made. DIY makes a lot of sense for this second stage.

I have 9040s on order from Costco. I will go to them for the initial fitting, and probably return after a couple of weeks for the next adjustment. But after that, I am thinking of DIY.

This DIY—lite approach still involves professionals. My guess is only a small number of HA users would be interested in DIY—lite, but it seems a sensible approach for some. I hope that DIY posts continue.

If HA manufactures see that people want to tweak their aids, I hope they don’t restrict access to software, but work to improve user apps.

There’s no law against self-programming. The programming devices are readily available in the marketplace. The software can be shared for the fact that it’s free. The manufacturer could of course lock the HA’s to a specific licensed and permitted software that a fitter pays for. But we haven’t seen locked HA’s for a while either.

But then too, not everybody would be so technically inclined to take on trying self-programming. It’s always surprising to me that after all these years of personal computers up to smartphones that people still don’t know how to do basic things on them.

For here, the host has provided a space for this. It has some different forum rights from the more open areas. I think it can be regarded as that quiet space. In hindsight (and I had said as much in a previous run-in with that user), I think it was a mistake to permit that user to keep his content off site and use this place as a conduit to it. So here we are. User tenkan seems to have picked up the torch and away we go without him.